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FORT MEADE, MD.—A retired Marine Corps colonel denied Tuesday that a three-star general directed the harsh pretrial confinement of an Army private charged with passing reams of classified documents to the secret-spilling website WikiLeaks.

Daniel Choike was installation commander of the Quantico, Virginia, Marine Corps base during Pfc. Bradley Manning’s nine months of confinement there from July 2010 to April 2011. He testified at a pretrial hearing for Manning.

Manning is seeking dismissal of the case, alleging he was illegally punished by conditions that included being locked up alone at least 23 hours a day, being forced to sleep naked for several nights and being forced to stand naked at attention one morning.

His lawyers contend the conditions were directed by Lt. Gen. George Flynn, who was commander of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command at Quantico at the time. Confronted by civilian defence lawyer David Coombs with a series of emails that included Flynn and Choike, Choike testified he kept Flynn informed about the situation but that Flynn never influenced the decision to keep Manning on maximum security and prevention-of-injury status.

“Gen. Flynn was not in the decision-making chain,” Choike said. “Gen. Flynn never once influenced anybody.”

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Instead, Manning’s custody status was determined by the brig commander, he said. That position was held during Manning’s confinement by Chief Warrant Officer 4 James Averhart and then by Chief Warrant Officer 2 Denise Barnes.

Choike defended the brig commanders’ decision to keep Manning classified as maximum-custody detainee who posed a threat of injury to himself or others. The classification was contrary to the recommendation of mental-health workers who examined him.

Court recessed after more than five hours of testimony from Choike.

Choike acknowledged that Flynn had expressed interest in Manning’s confinement due to the nature of the charges and international media attention to the case. Choike said Manning was under suicide watch when the soldier arrived at Quantico from Kuwait, and Flynn wanted assurance that everything was being done to keep him safe. Another prisoner had committed suicide in the brig the previous December.

Choike said Manning’s custody status was determined in part by his odd behaviour, including licking the bars of his cell, “erratic dancing” and lifting invisible weights. Coombs suggested that the bar-licking occurred during sleepwalking and that the other behaviours were merely exercise.

Choike said Manning’s jailers took away his underwear at night starting March 2, 2011, after he made what they regarded as a suicidal comment: “I have everything I need right here to be able to harm myself. The waistband of my underwear can do this.” Coombs suggested the comment stemmed from Manning’s frustration at being kept on injury-prevention status.

A day later, Manning was forced to stand naked at attention for morning inspection by a guard who told him he wasn’t allowed to cover himself with his blanket, Coombs said. Choike denied any knowledge of such an order. If the guard gave it, “That would be wrong,” Choike said.

“And why would that be wrong?” Coombs asked.

“It serves no purpose,” Choike said.

Before the hearing Tuesday, about two-dozen Manning backers held up signs of support outside the post. Then they attended the proceeding, many wearing black T-shirts with the word “Truth” in white lettering.

The U.S. government claims the disclosures attributed to Manning endangered lives and security. Manning supporters say the leaks exposed war crimes and triggered pro-democracy uprisings in the Middle East.

The 24-year-old faces possible life imprisonment if convicted of aiding the enemy, the most serious of the 22 charges.

He is accused of sending hundreds of thousands of classified Iraq and Afghanistan war logs and more than 250,000 diplomatic cables to the secret-spilling website WikiLeaks while he was working as an intelligence analyst in Baghdad in 2009 and 2010.

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